Seasonal workers’ remittances contributing to economy

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One of the major contributing factors to the development of Samoa’s economy is remittances from New Zealand and Australia under the seasonal workers scheme.

This is according to the Ministry of Commerce Industry and Labour Assistant CEO (Apprenticeship, Employment and Labour Market), Sa’u Taupisi Faamau, when she was responding to questions on the 2016 Labour Market Survey.

According to the survey report, a reason for the high staff turnover in the formal private sector is because people move to New Zealand and Australia for the seasonal workers’ scheme.

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“And that’s why Samoan people, especially the youths or unemployed people prefer to go under the above programme, because they make more profits and it has more benefits for them,” she said.

“And it (seasonal workers scheme) really helps the development of their families in terms of finances plus other related costs."

“Samoa’s vulnerability to climate change, in terms of natural disasters, people tend to be employed at other sectors because of job security but mainly on their own preferences.”

Sa’u said since the last labour market survey in 2013, there has been a continuous growth of newly established businesses in the accommodation and whole sectors resulting in the increasing number of people leaving the employment and wholesale sectors.

“This gives more chances to employees in these sectors to move around among employers of the same sector or other sector, depending on the preferences of the employees."

The Samoa Labour Survey of Private Sector Employers is carried out every three years.